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"Janus (i. Hlaiiif was a caiulidatt' for the nomination 
for tlic third time. As in 1880 be was the phantom 
across Sherman's path to the White House." 



Masters of Men 

A Retrospect in Presidential 

Politics 



BY 

DANIEL J. RYAN 



'With Eight Contemporary Portraits 



McClelland & co. 

COLUMBUS, o. 



n^9 



Copyright 1915 by Daniel J. Ryan 
Published February, 1915 



THE CHAMPLIN PBKSS 
COLCMBVS, OHIO 



MAR 19 1915 

©CI,A:i97l88 



To My Fellow Members of The Kit Kat Club^ 

171 acknowledgment of 
'Some Little Glimpses of Literature and Lifer 



MASTERS OF MEN 



CONTENTS 



I 

OHIO IN NATIONAL POLITICS 

II 

JOHN SHERMAN, STATESMAN 

III 

PREPARING FOR A CONTEST 

IV 

^^IN CHICAGO IN THE HEAT OF JUNE"" 

V 

THE VICTORY OF THE ^^PLUMED KNIGHT^" 

VI 

THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT 



VII 

BLAINE IN OHIO 



PORTRAITS 



I 

JAMES G. BLAINE 

II 

JAMES A. GARFIELD 

III 

JOHN SHERMAN 

IV 

JOSEPH B. rORAKER 

V 

WILLIAM MCKINLEY 

VI 

MARCUS A. HANNA 

VII 

WILLIAM H. WEST 

VIII 

CARL SCHURZ 
vii 



MASTERS OF MEN 




I 
OHIO IN NATIONAL POLITICS 

|N THE presidential turmoil of 1884 
there was no more prominent, pugna- 
cious, nor noisy State than Ohio. In 
fact since the organization of the Republican 
party her State influence has been such that 
she has been one of its greatest and most con- 
trolling factors. Of the ten nominees for pres- 
ident of the Republican Party since 1856, four 
of them, Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, and 
Taft, were nominated from Ohio; two others. 
Grant and Harrison, were born and reared in 
that State although presented from others. 
This tendency to occupy the center of the stage 
in the political affairs of the nation is neither 
accidental nor recent. From its very origin 
Ohio participated largely in national affairs, 
and even before its admission to the Union it 
was a storm center in federal politics. 

The conflict over Statehood between Ed- 
ward Tiffin and his Virginia associates of the 

1 



2 Masters of Men 

Scioto Valley representing the Democracy of 
Thomas Jefferson, and Governor Arthur St. 
Clair, leading the Federalists of Marietta, first 
brought Ohio into national politics. Its early 
settlers were men of high and positive charac- 
ter, well educated, and came into the State for 
the sole purpose of building up homes and 
creating a great western commonwealth. Un- 
like many other States that were settled, and 
many other settlements made before and since, 
the men who laid the foundations of Ohio came 
neither for conquest nor for the chase. They 
were not tramps nor trappers, victors nor va- 
grants. The only time that was given to hunt- 
ing and adventure was that which was neces- 
sary to the building of a home and giving it 
sustenance. Their leaders had served their 
country in the Revolutionary War; they came 
across the AUeghenies with college educations, 
from homes of culture in Virginia, Pennsyl- 
vania, New Jersey, and New England. It was 
but natural then, that these men should have 
positive ideas on governmental affairs. They 
had well defined political views and convictions 
and lined up clearly either with Hamilton or 
Jefferson. They were as aggressive as they 



Ohio in National Politics 3 

were positive ; and given these two dispositions 
you will produce men who love political con- 
flict and public honors, and who think enough 
of their party to give time, labor and thought 
to its success. 

Later on, their descendants, reinforced by 
the best racial types of other lands, partici- 
pated, as did their fathers, in the settlement of 
all great national questions. They became in- 
volved, for and against, in the plans of Aaron 
Burr, and it was in Ohio, at Marietta and 
Chillicothe and Cincinnati that his friends 
were the warmest and his enemies the bitterest. 
It was just as natural for the Ohioans to par- 
ticipate in this sensational intrigue, or dream, 
call it what you will, as it was to engage in 
any other political fight. It was Edward Tif- 
fin, Ohio's first Governor, and the head of the 
Jeffersonian party that suppressed Burr's 
plans, and it was John Smith, one of Ohio's 
first United States Senators, that met ex- 
tinction and disgrace by reason of his supposed 
alliance with the ex- Vice President. This was 
all politics, and Ohio men drifted into it nat- 
urally. So, in the War of 1812, it was Ohio 
that furnished to the western border the great- 



4 Masters of Men 

er part of the troops that scattered in defeat 
the last remnants of British aggression on 
American soil, and it was her political lead- 
ers, Harrison, Cass, McArthur and Meigs 
that raised and led her militia to victory. The 
world knows her part in the Civil War and the 
great characters which she contributed to its 
history. Nearly every administration at 
Washington, since the admission of Ohio to 
the Union, has seen her sons in the first places 
in the govermiient. 

There is a proverbial sneer as to the office- 
seeking and office-holding "Ohio man," but 
nevertheless, to use a modernism, he has 
"made good," and his public career has il- 
lumined the pages of American history, and 
added lustre to the fame of his country. The 
roll call of "office-seeking" and "office-hold- 
ing" Ohioans challenges the admiration of his- 
tory. They have given strength and glory to 
the Nation. Her sons, reared on a soil plowed 
and planted by the descendants of Puritan 
and Cavalier have fought for place, honor, and 
power, and have won. The past, as Webster 
said of Massachusetts, is at least secure. And 
all this comes from political conflict, from the 





"Garfield, the golden-mouthed, in presenting Mr. 
Sherman's name to the Convention in 1880, did it with 
such consummate power and eloquent grace that he nom- 
inated himself." 



Ohio in National Politics 5 

contest of men of thought and action for that 
much sought power which ambition craves, and 
for which all that men have, is freely given. 

And the result of all this storm and conflict 
in Ohio's history? Here it is, and let him who 
sneers at politics and politicians read well and 
think, for he is confronted with primal types, 
developed in political struggles, which make 
nations great. Seven Presidents: William 
Henry Harrison, Ulysses S. Grant, Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Benjamin 
Harrison, William McKinley and William H. 
Taft. Two Vice Presidents: Thomas A. 
Hendricks and Charles W. Fairbanks. Three 
Presidents pro tem of the United States Sen- 
ate: B. F. Wade, Allen G. Thurman and 
John Sherman. Nine Justices of the Supreme 
Court: John McLean, S. P. Chase (Chief 
Justice), Morrison R. Waite (Chief Justice), 
Stanley Mathews, Noah H. Swayne, Edwin 
M. Stanton, William B. Woods and William 
R. Day. Four Secretaries of State: Lewis 
Cass, John Sherman, William R. Day and 
John Hay. Six Secretaries of the Treasury: 
Thomas Ewing, Thomas Corwin, S. P. 
Chase, John Sherman, William Windom, 



6 Masters of Men 

and Charles Foster. Nine Secretaries of 
War: Lewis Cass, John McLean, Edwin 
M. Stanton, U. S. Grant, W. T. Sherman, 
Alphonso Taft, Stephen B. Elkins, Russell 
B. Alger and William H. Taft. Five Sec- 
retaries of the Interior: Thomas Ewing, 
J. D. Cox, Columbus Delano, John W. 
Noble and James R. Garfield. Five Attor- 
neys General: Henry Stanberry, Alphonso 
Taft, Edwin M. Stanton, W. H. Mil- 
ler, and Judson Harmon. Four Postmasters 
General: Return J. Meigs, John McLean, 
William Dennison and Frank Hatton. One 
Secretary of Agriculture: Jeremiah Rusk. 

In the severe training school of politics, 
nearly all of these men developed and equipped 
themselves for the duties and successes of their 
National careers. Nothing came easily; in 
county, state and national conventions they 
made the fight for power and honor, which 
was afterwards fructified into lasting and hon- 
orable fame. They were the victors in a long 
series of intellectual combats, and they all had, 
as a necessary foundation, characters of great 
probity and deep morality. 

No stronger evidence of the value of the po- 



Ohio in National Politics 7 

litical training which Ohioans acquired in their 
history is seen, than in the position that State 
had held in the National Conventions of the 
Republican party. In almost every contest 
for the nomination for the Presidency in that 
party, she has figured as a dominating factor. 
It was a well-schooled politician from Ohio 
that seized Opportunity in her flight, and made 
Abraham Lincoln the Republican nominee in 
1860. Just before the result of the third bal- 
lot was announced, one and one-half votes be- 
ing lacking to make a nomination, David K. 
Carter of Ohio, said, "I arise, Mr. Chairman, 
to announce the change of four votes of Ohio 
from Chase to Abraham Lincoln," and by 
those words was determined a destiny for the 
plain country lawyer that led him to the Presi- 
dency and immortal fame. And in 1876 when 
the next political contest for the high office 
took place, it was the strategy and wisdom of 
Ohio men that, amidst the clash of political 
giants like Blaine, Morton, Conkling and 
Bristow, secured the nomination for their high- 
minded, but unpretending Governor, Ruther- 
ford B. Hayes. Again in 1880, in the midst 
of a similar conflict of intellectual and noted 



8 Masters of Men 

leaders of the party, an Ohioan was the choice. 
Over Grant, Blaine, Sherman, Edmunds and 
Windom, the National Convention nominated 
James A. Garfield, who was one of the most 
accomplished politicians Ohio ever produced. 
And it may be remembered that of the seven 
candidates before that Convention, four of 
them were native-born Ohioans. So it was at 
a later date, 1896, when William McKinley 
was nominated for the Presidency, that the 
great honor came only through labor and 
effort. 




II 

JOHN SHERMAN, STATESMAN 

T IS apparent then, that, from her po- 




litical history, she was simply playing 
her accustomed part in National poli- 
tics when Ohio in 1884 appeared in the Re- 
publican contest for the Presidential nomina- 
tion, with John Sherman as her candidate. 
Mr. Sherman reluctantly entered the race, as 
his close friends of that day will readily testify. 
His failure in the National Convention of 1880 
to secure the nomination was the most grievous 
disappointment of his life. He could never 
get rid of the feeling that, had his friends been 
true to him in that Convention, he would have 
been President of the United States. In this 
defeat he was a great example of the inappre- 
ciation of the American public of its truly 
towering national characters. At that time, 
1880, John Sherman was easily the foremost 
statesman of his country, and in his construct- 
ive political career ranked with Gladstone and 
Bismarck. Entering public life in ante-bellum 



10 Masters of Men 

times, he took rank in his first congressional 
term, which commenced with the Thirty- 
Fourth Congress in 1855, as an important po- 
litical personage. Slavery was in its death 
struggle, and it was largely due to his courage 
and leadership that public sentiment was di- 
rected against it. 

In the House of Representatives he typified 
more than any other man, the rapidly rising 
antagonism among the conservative anti- 
slavery people of the North. Although op- 
posed to slavery, he never believed in the radi- 
cal position of the Abolitionists as advocated 
by those eminent Ohioans, Wade and Gid- 
dings. He opposed its extension and arro- 
gant domination in National politics, knowing 
that it was an institution that time would de- 
stroy. Like the Fathers of the Republic, he 
believed that it was a grave evil, but was will- 
ing to let it rot to death in its own territory. 
With Lincoln, he believed that this govern- 
ment could not endure permanently half slave 
and half free, and as the day of the ultimate 
extermination of slavery approached, he was 
abreast of every movement looking to its 
abolition. In the contest for the Speakership 



John Sherman, Statesman 11 

of the Thirty- Sixth Congress, in 1859, he was 
a martyr to anti-slavery expressions that he 
would neither apologize for, nor withdraw. 
His superb, yet quietly positive courage was 
demonstrated in the investigation of the 
troubles in Kansas, which was practically con- 
ducted under his management amidst sur- 
roundings of overt unfriendliness and personal 
danger. In the Senate he grew to the grand- 
est proportions capable in public life. In the 
Cabinet he had attained the heights of human 
statesmanship. 

Garfield, the golden-mouthed, in presenting 
Mr. Sherman's name to the Convention in 
1880, did it with such consummate power and 
eloquent grace that he nominated himself. His 
speech on Sherman, and Ingersoll's on Blaine, 
four years before, are the masterpieces of 
American convention oratory. The great ca- 
reer of the candidate was a worthy theme for 
the master orator who presented it, and it gave 
an inspiration that even the occasion could 
not furnish. As it is read today, after nearly 
a third of a century has passed, there is 
little wonder that its Jovian bolts of oratory 
from its great and impressive author should 



12 Masters of Men 

have won the loyalty of the seething and sway- 
ing delegates from the candidates that were 
far away. They could see and hear and feel 
Garfield, and his eloquence was a siren's sj^m- 
phony that made them forget their principals 
at home. Neither historian nor orator nor poet 
could picture Sherman in a stronger light than 
he was pictured on that occasion. After he had 
wound the coils of his fascinating eloquence 
around the Convention in an oration glistening 
with the adornments of rhetoric, Garfield 
closed with this peroration: 

"1 am about to present a name for your con- 
sideration — the name of a man who was a com- 
rade and associate and friend of nearly all of 
the noble dead whose faces look down upon us 
from these walls tonight. A man who began 
his public career in public service twenty-five 
years ago, whose first duty was courageously 
done in the days of peril on the plains of Kan- 
sas, w^hen the first red drops of that bloody 
shower began to fall which finally swelled into 
the deluge of war. He bravely stood by young 
Kansas then, and returning to his seat in the 
National Legislature, through all the subse- 
quent years his pathway has been marked by 




"At that time, 1880, John Sherman was easih^ the 
foremost statesman of his country, and in his con- 
structive political career ranked with Gladstone and 
Bismarck." 



John Sherman, Statesman 13 

labors worthily performed in every department 
of legislation. You ask for his monuments — 
I point you to twenty-five years of National 
statutes. Not one great beneficent law has 
been placed upon our statute books without 
his intelligent and powerful aid. He aided in 
formulating the laws that raised our great 
armies and navies and carried us through the 
war. His hand was seen in the workmanship 
of those statutes that restored and brought 
back 'the unity and the married calm of 
States.' His hand was in all that great legis- 
lation that created the war currency, and in 
the still greater work that redeemed the 
promises of the Government, and made the 
currency equal to gold; and, when at last he 
passed from the halls of legislation into a high 
executive office, he displayed that experience, 
intelligence, firmness and poise of character 
which has carried us through a stormy period 
of three years, with one-half the public press 
crying 'Crucify him!' and a hostile Congress 
seeking to prevent success. In all this he re- 
mained unmoved until victory crowned him. 
The great fiscal affairs of the Nation and the 
vast business interests of the country he 



14 Masters of Men 

guarded and preserved while executing the 
law of resumption, and effected his object 
without a jar and against the prophecies of 
one-half the press and all of the Democracy of 
this continent. He has shown himself able to 
meet with calmness the great emergencies of 
the Government. For twenty-five years he 
has trodden the perilous heights of public 
duty, and against all the shafts of malice has 
bared his breast unharmed. He has stood in 
the blaze of that fierce light that beats against 
the throne, but its fiercest ray has found no 
flaw in his armor, no stain upon his shield. I 
do not present him as a better Republican or a 
better man than thousands of others that we 
honor, but I present him for your deliberate 
and favorable consideration. I nominate 
John Sherman of Ohio." 

And yet with this record he w^as but third in 
the race, receiving his highest vote — 120 — on 
the thirtieth ballot. His State never was 
united for him; nine delegates from Ohio per- 
sistently voted for Blaine. JNIr. Sherman was 
always a philosophic loser, but this contest left 
a bitterness in his heart that stayed there fof 
the rest of his life. He believed that he was 



John Sherman, Statesman 15 

the logical candidate for that year. Indeed, 
he has left in his "Recollections" written re- 
marks to that effect. 

Senator Sherman's friends, however, were 
not content to let his defeat pass unnoticed. 
After the convention there were mutterings in 
the Ohio press intimating treachery at Chi- 
cago. Governor Charles Foster, a delegate- 
at-large, was charged with infidelity, although 
a special confidant and representative of Mr. 
Sherman. 

The criticisms and charges, both by news- 
papers and delegates, brought forth a letter of 
explanation and defense from Foster to Sher- 
man, which the latter answered with character- 
istic frankness and generosity. In his letter 
dated June 30, Mr. Sherman said: "It was 
distinctly stated to me, by delegates and 
friends of delegates present in the convention, 
that they proffered the votes of large portions 
of their respective delegations to you with the 
understanding that they were to be cast for me 
whenever you indicated the proper moment. 
This was specifically said as to Indiana, 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Blaine 
portion of the Pennsylvania delegation. It 



16 Masters of Men 

was said you prevented Massachusetts from 
voting for me from about the tenth to the fif- 
teenth ballot on ISIonday, that nine of the Con- 
necticut held themselves ready to vote for me 
on your call, but that you put it off, and Har- 
rison is quoted as saying that twenty-six votes 
from Indiana were ready to be cast for me 
JNIonday, at any time after a few ballots, but 
they were withheld on account of representa- 
tions from the Ohio delegation. INIr. Billings 
of Vermont is quoted as saying that the Ver- 
mont delegation, with two or three exceptions, 
were ready to vote for me, but were discon- 
tented with the position taken by you, and 
doubted whether you desired their vote for 
me." Mr. Sherman was not only a great states- 
man but he was also a great politician. He 
was not a man to "cry over spilt milk," and he 
therefore had no disposition to keep up a feud 
with Governor Foster. So he dropped the 
matter and took the Governor's loyalty at his 
word. His (Sherman's) first impulse was to 
send Foster the whole mass of letters, from 
delegates and others attending the convention, 
charging his disloyalty. But this, on consid- 
eration, he decided to forego, because, said he. 



John Sherman, Statesman 17 

"This would only create a controversy and, 
perhaps, betray confidence which I could not 
do." 

With this unpleasant aftermath Sherman's 
first candidacy for the nomination for the 
Presidency took its place among the similar 
failures of equally great men. 





Ill 

PREPARING FOR A CONTEST 

|HEREFORE, when another presiden- 
tial 3^ear rolled around, and the friends 
of Sherman in Ohio again called upon 
him to come forward as a candidate, he re- 
sponded with a marked lack of enthusiasm. 
The old ambition seemed dulled. To the pub- 
lic press of his State he said: "I am in no sense 
a candidate, and would not make an effort for 
the nomination. I would not even express my 
opinion as to who should be delegates from my 
own district, or what their action should be. 
Four years ago I thought it best to be a can- 
didate ; I believe that the logic of events at that 
time justified such action. The reasons I 
would not state. Now there is no such condi- 
tion, and I would not enter a contest even for 
an endorsement of my own constituency." 

Nevertheless, Mr. Sherman became a candi- 
date — rather what is known in politics as a re- 
ceptive candidate; that is, one who desires an 
office, but prefers not to display an unusual 

18 



Preparing for a Contest 19 

ambition for the same. He permitted his 
friends to maintain an active propaganda in 
his behalf. He was never a popular man in 
the accepted sense of that word. No man ever 
slapped him on the back and said "Hello, 
John!" His dignity, great ability, intellectual 
strength and lofty character were acknowl- 
edged by all, and he commanded universal re- 
spect, that while cordial was diffident and dis- 
tant. But with all this, his State gave him a 
divided allegiance. 

James G. Blaine was a candidate for the 
nomination for the third time. As in 1880 he 
was the phantom across Sherman's path to the 
White House. Of a diametrically opposite 
temperament and character, he commanded a 
following that was passionately attached to his 
fortunes. He was a man of long experience in 
politics and great brilliancy of intellect. He 
possessed a pronounced social disposition as 
well as that indefinable psychological attrib- 
ute, which, for want of a better name, we call 
personal magnetism; gifted with the graces of 
oratory, he directed them to playing upon the 
sentiments and passions of men. In his long 
career in Congress he never constructed an 



20 Masters of Men 

idea into legislation, nor ever proposed a solu- 
tion of a problem. He was a great orator, a 
first-class debater and a consummate politi- 
cian. He was the Pied Piper of his day in 
politics, and the charms of his flute chained 
millions of his countrymen to his heels and he 
led them into the cavern of defeat. They fol- 
lowed him with the blind devotion that the 
Mohammedan follows the crescent. And like 
Henry of jSTavarre, wherever Blaine's plume 
waved, there was the thickest of the fight, and 
there his loyal followers were to be found. 

The contrast between these two men was 
vivid. Sherman did things; Blaine talked 
about them. Blaine held to his friends with 
hooks of steel ; Sherman had to be introduced 
to them quadrennially. Sherman was scru- 
pulously jealous of his public and private in- 
tegrity, and for his closest friends would not 
use his office. Blaine, to put it mildly, was so 
anxious to help his friends that his biographers 
have ever since been busy explaining the acts 
of friendship. Sherman was totally devoid of 
literary ability, and his "Recollections" is the 
only work of his life that disappointed his 
friends; while, on the contrary, Blaine's 



Preparing for a Contest 21 

"Twenty Years of Congress," and his funeral 
oration on Garfield, which belongs to the sub- 
lime and beautiful in literature, are monu- 
ments that will preserve his name long after 
his political career is forgotten. Sherman was 
popular with the business man, the banker, 
and the thinker; Blaine was the idol of the 
rank and file, of the men in the trenches. 

It was between these two leaders that the 
sentiment of the Republican party in Ohio was 
divided, and this division confronted McKin- 
ley when he arrived in Cleveland to preside 
over the State Convention of 1884. He was 
easily the most conspicuous figure, next to Mr. 
Sherman, in the State, and his reception as he 
assumed the chair, was worthy even of a presi- 
dential candidate. He was received with an 
enthusiasm that indicated the most sincere loy- 
alty and admiration. Fresh from his victorious 
debate in Congress, amidst the cheers of the 
convention and the air of "See the Conquering 
Hero Comes," it was plain to be seen that he 
had secured a firm place in the hearts of his 
fellow Ohioans. The young men of Ohio, the 
great Western Reserve and McKinley's own 
district were for Blaine. The "Plumed 



22 Masters of Men 

Knight" was McKinley's own choice. In his 
speech as chairman, he made no reference to 
the presidential contest, and all through the 
performance of his duties he maintained an im- 
partial parliamentary poise that won for him 
the unstinted confidence of the contending fac- 
tions. 

The real contest of presidential strength be- 
tween the Blaine and Sherman forces came in 
the selection of the delegates-at-large to the 
National Convention. The result was the 
naming of William McKinley, Joseph B. For- 
aker, Marcus A. Hanna, and William H. 
West for those positions. 

McKinley was selected over his most pro- 
nounced protests, he even going so far as to re- 
fuse to recognize his nomination or to announce 
votes in his favor. He said he had promised 
his friends that he would not be a candidate as 
long as Marcus A. Hanna was in the field, 
and did not desire to break his word. There 
were cries of "No," "No," and "You cannot 
withdraw," but he persisted in preventing his 
election. Finally Gen. Charles H. Grosvenor 
put the question to the convention, which by a 
rising vote unanimously named him, totally 



."'/ ^^ 




"Joseph B. Foraker, then in his thirty-eighth year, 
was elected delegate-at-large also by unanimous vote. 
He was in the beginning of a public career that has 
since placed him in the list of the great characters of 
the Nation." 



Preparing for a Contest 23 

ignoring all questions of presidential choice, 
as well as McKinley's views on promises made 
to his friends. He was already too big a man 
in his party to be bound by the conditions and 
limitations applicable to the ordinary politi- 
cian. 

Joseph B. Foraker, then in his thirty-eighth 
year, was elected delegate-at-large also by 
unanimous vote. He was in the beginning of 
a public career that has since placed him in the 
list of the great characters of the Nation. The 
year before he had made a canvass for the Gov- 
ernorship and was defeated, but only after a 
campaign distinguished for its brilliancy and 
courage. The advance movement of the Re- 
publican party of Ohio in taxing and regulat- 
ing the liquor traffic had won for it the opposi- 
tion and resentment of the liquor dynasty, then 
more powerful than now, and the result was 
the election of Judge Hoadly, one of the most 
distinguished lawyers of the State. Foraker, 
confident and aggressive, conducted his can- 
vass with great success, and although defeat 
met him at the polls he had won the admiration 
and respect of his party. The development of 
self-poise and his attractive oratory, with his 



24 Masters of Men 

high personal character, found him recognized 
at the end of the canvass as one of the coming 
characters of the Repubhcan party of Ohio, 
and when he attended the State Convention 
following his defeat, instead of being consigned 
to oblivion, or even obscurity, he was regarded 
as a proper and logical delegate from the 
State-at-large to the National Convention. 
More than this, his position commanded re- 
spect for he was looked upon as the next candi- 
date for Governor, and he had already rallied 
around him an aggressive and brilliant follow- 
ing which he retained through a long and pro- 
gressively distinguished career. In addition 
he was the acknowledged leader of the Sher- 
man forces in the State, and to him was com- 
mitted the management of Mr. Sherman's 
campaign, and the honor of presenting his 
name to the National Convention, as chairman 
of the Ohio delegation. 

The third delegate at large elected unani- 
mously was Marcus A. Hanna — then plain 
Mark Hanna of Cleveland. He was we'll 
known to convention-goers in Ohio, but he had 
no reputation in politics beyond his local sur- 
roundings. As a successful business man he 



Preparing for a Contest 25 

indulged in politics from a sense of duty and 
to help his friends. And it may be remarked 
that he liked the game. Up to this time he had 
never figured in a National Convention, but 
he was recognized as one of the substantial and 
generous supporters of the Republican party 
in Cleveland and the Western Reserve. He 
was an intimate friend of Garfield, and was 
one of his closest advisers in the campaign of 
1880. He favored Senator Sherman for the 
Presidency with as much loyalty as Major 
McKinley did that of Mr. Blaine. 

William H. West, after a spirited canvass, 
was elected as the fourth delegate at large. He 
was a distinguished lawyer of Ohio, a warm 
friend and admirer of Blaine, and was recog- 
nized as the aggressive leader of that faction 
in Ohio. He had been Attorney General of 
the State, a Judge of the Supreme Court, and 
was defeated as a Republican nominee for 
Governor in 1877. The loss of his sight and 
his powerful oratory gave him the name of 
"The Blind Man Eloquent." Tall, gaunt, 
blind and impressive, he had swayed audiences 
in Ohio in every campaign since the beginning 
of the Republican party. He led the Blaine 



26 Masters of Men 

forces with such enthusiasm and strength, and 
pleaded his cause with such powerful appeals, 
that it was no wonder that his chief should 
have requested him to present his name to the 
Chicago convention. For this also may have 
been the added reasons that both were natives 
of Washington county, Pennsylvania, both 
started life by teaching school in Kentucky in 
the late forties, and this friendship of their 
early careers was kept burning all the while. 
Blaine was basically sentimental and such 
things weighed with him. 

This was Ohio's "Big Four" in 1884, and no 
State in the Union sent to Chicago that vear a 
stronger delegation-at-large. Three of these 
men acquired in after years great National 
fame, and at the convention all four capably 
maintained the different ideas they represent- 
ed, and reflected honor upon themselves and 
their State. Xo other delegation so deeply 
stamped its impress upon the proceedings and 
result of the convention. 

From the State Convention McKinley re- 
turned to Washington, and from that time to 
the day of his unseating, was in the midst of 



Preparing for a Contest 27 

the strenuous conflicts attending the tariff bill 
and his own contest. On the night of the 27th 
of May he left Washington, the scene of his 
public labors for the past seven years, as a 
private citizen, to enter a new field and to gain 
new honors. 





IV 

"IN CHICAGO IX THE HEAT OF 

JUNE" 

HE Eighth National Convention of the 
Republican Party met at Chicago, June 
3rd, 1884. 

It was the most remarkable gathering ever 
assembled under the auspices of the party. No 
convention since has ever approached it in 
character. Here could be seen the greatest 
and wisest of Republican thought and leader- 
ship. There were the scholar-politicians of 
the East — Andrew D. White, George Will- 
iam Curtis and Henry Cabot Lodge. Three 
men afterwards elected President sat as dele- 
gates — Benjamin Harrison, William ]\IcKin- 
ley and Theodore Roosevelt. Future Cabinet 
Ministers mingled in the deliberations — Rich- 
ard M. Thompson, Russell A. Alger, James 
A. Gary, John D. Long, and Redfield Proc- 
tor. Two score of the delegates were, or be- 
came subsequently. United States Senators. 
As the highest forum of a political party it was 

28 




"McKinley was one of the attractive and much sought 
for characters of the convention." 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 29 

a gratifying example of representative govern- 
ment within partisan lines. 

McKinley arrived on the scene on the 1st, 
and was in consultation with the Blaine men 
from the start. He did not come with the 
crowds from his district which had arrived the 
day before, because he was detained by a Dec- 
oration Day oration at his home. The car that 
contained the Blaine enthusiasts and their del- 
egates from the Western Reserve districts was 
decorated with a mammoth oil painting of 
their candidate, and the mottoes, "Blaine, the 
Plumed Knight, the People's Choice," and, 
"The Eighteenth Ohio District is Solid for 
Blaine." McKinley's attitude was well under- 
stood among his friends. His first choice was 
for Blaine; he did not believe Mr. Sherman 
could be nominated. If the time ever came in 
the convention when that was possible, Mc- 
Kinley would help do it. But Ohio was hope- 
lessly divided. The popularity of Blaine had 
broken down all State pride, and among the 
younger element he was the political idol of the 
hour. The choice of Blaine did not mean 
factitious opposition to Sherman. It was not 
like 1880, when Mr. Sherman saw plain evi- 



30 Masters of Mex 

dences of betrayal; but it was sheer senseless 
devotion to one who had hypnotized the Re- 
publican party. It was open and frank, and 
uncontrollable. Not that they loved Sherman 
less, but that they loved Blaine more. 

Senator Sherman himself had a clear view 
of the situation and accepted it philosophically. 
Eleven days before the convention met, he 
wrote to a friend in Columbus, Ohio, who had 
written to him expressing hopes for his nomi- 
nation, the following frank letter, dated from 
the United State Senate: "I am gratified 
that old friends, like yourself, still have confi- 
dence in me. This is more pleasing than suc- 
cess. I have not regarded my nomination as 
a probable thing. Nor have I, in any way, 
sought to influence the action of the Conven- 
tion. If the nomination comes it will be more 
grateful if unsought, and I will then try to 
meet its responsibilities. If not, I shall be 
content without disappointment to abide the 
decision of the Convention. It is hardly to be 
expected that the Republicans of a State as 
large as Ohio should all have the same choice 
for President, especially of one who has been 
compelled to take so active a part in politics as 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 31 

myself. Still the general good will of the dele- 
gation seems to be assured, and there is no one 
on it who could fairly be considered as an 
enemy. If they were entirely united and cor- 
dial they could easily nominate." 

There was not the least bitterness in Mr. 
Sherman on account of the attitude of his own 
State's delegation. And to McKinley he was 
most cordial, and never stored up any feeling 
by reason of his fealty to Blaine. In truth, of 
all the candidates before the convention, next 
to himself, he preferred Blaine, and the latter's 
friends all understood that. He was positive- 
ly opposed to President Arthur's nomination, 
not on personal grounds, but because he did 
not regard him as a man of sufficient calibre to 
occupy the high station which he filled, and was 
again aspiring to. He looked upon him as a 
politician pure and simple, and accidentally 
elevated by the lamentable death of Garfield. 

Recurring to McKinley's attitude, this much 
in the interest of truth must be said. His po- 
sition was one of ambiguity from the Sherman 
standpoint. It was felt indefinably that Mr. 
McKinley, although he did not publicly avow 
it until he reached the convention, was under 



32 Masters of Men 

the fascination of Blaine. Three weeks before 
the convention Mr. Sherman firmly believed 
he would have McKinley's support. He wrote 
to Foraker on May 16: "I am now advised 
that McKinley wishes it distinctly understood 
that he is for me." 

When the Convention assembled its dele- 
gates had already been worked up to fever heat 
in the struggles for their respective candidates. 
The real contest was between Blaine and Ar- 
thur. The only hope of Mr. Sherman's suc- 
cess lay in the combination of the field, but it 
was soon patent that this was unattainable, for 
he did not develop the strength even shown by 
Senator Edmunds of Vermont, or General 
Logan of Illinois. With McKinley and For- 
aker as leaders of the respective forces of Ohio 
in the Convention, her delegation sat quietly 
awaiting the momentous crisis when there 
should be a show of hands. Up to this time 
there was a great deal of uncertainty as to how 
many votes Sherman could seciu^e in his own 
State, and the ver}^ uncertainty of it weak- 
ened and handicapped him. The dividing line 
was drawn in the vote electing a temporary 
chairman. Powell Clavton, of Arkansas, was 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 33 

proposed by the National Republican Com- 
mittee for that position. Ordinarily such rec- 
ommendation is cheerfully acquiesced in by the 
convention. But this was not. Clayton was 
recognized as a Blaine supporter, and the field, 
led by Henry C. Lodge, moved to substitute 
John R. Lynch, a colored delegate from Mis- 
sissippi. The Blaine men in the Ohio delega- 
tion, led by McKinley and Judge West, cast 
23 votes for Clayton, and the Sherman dele- 
gates, under Foraker and Hanna, cast 22 for 
Lynch — one Ohio delegate absent or not 
voting. So the relative strength of Sherman 
and Blaine was disclosed, much to the disap- 
pointment of the former's friends. It was easy 
to see, notwithstanding the field won in the 
election of Mr. Lynch by a vote of 424 to 384, 
that it foreshadowed Mr. Blaine's nomination. 
He was easily the second choice of many more 
delegates. 

The opposition to Mr. Blaine fought with 
terrific earnestness. Senator Edmunds' sup- 
porters, led by George William Curtis, hated 
Blaine with an intensity that was ominous. 
They said he could not carry New York by 
reason of the opposition to him among the In- 



34 Masters of Men 

dependent Republicans of that State. The 
Arthur men, principally place holders of his 
administration, threatened sure defeat for the 
"Plumed Knight." The weakness of the op- 
position to Blaine was its failure to be able to 
unite on a candidate. But the truth was, he 
was the beloved idol of his party, and nothing 
could drive his followers away from him. 

McKinley was one of the attractive and 
much sought for characters of the Convention. 
His tariff debates and his summary and unjust 
unseating from Congress were fresh in the 
mind of the public ; added to this, his dignified 
and independent course in the Convention for 
Blaine made him one of the heroes of the day. 
His wisdom and influence in the party were 
recognized both in his State and out; his dele- 
gation presented him as their member on the 
Committee on Resolutions, and when that com- 
mittee assembled he was unanimously elected 
its chairman. To him was committed the duty 
and responsibility of framing the platform of 
the Republican party, which he read with a 
really dramatic effect to the Convention on the 
third dav. With a clear and resonant, vet not 
noisy voice, he was heard in every nook and 



**In Chicago in the Heat of June" 35 

corner of the convention hall, and the well 
declaimed and eloquent paragraphs of the 
platform were received with rapturous ap- 
plause. 

Up to this time McKinley had sat mute in 
the convention; none of the debates provoked 
from him any expression. He was a counsellor 
for the Blaine people rather than their spokes- 
man. Once during the session he was appealed 
to in bringing order out of the chaos into which 
the convention drifted in the third day. The 
courtly John B. Henderson, former United 
States Senator from Missouri, was selected as 
Permanent Chairman of the Convention. Ill 
health and weariness had robbed him of his old 
time energy and the convention "ran away 
with him," as the professional delegate ex- 
presses it. The utter inability to preserve any 
semblance of order became so apparent even 
to Mr. Henderson, that in sheer dismay and 
discouragement he called McKinley to the 
chair. His presence and impressive appear- 
ance, with a single determined thump of his 
gavel, changed a howling mob into a delibera- 
tive assembly. His voice controlled the Con- 
vention, and his rulings were as strong and 



26 Masters of Men 

clear as a bugle call, and as conclusive as the 
orders of a general. The convention recog- 
nized a master hand, and surrendered without 
a protest. 

The conspicuous position that Ohio occu- 
pied in the convention was emphasized by the 
fact that both Blaine and Sherman were to be 
nominated by delegates from that State. It 
was not to her credit that she exhibited such a 
disunited appearance, but it was striking, and 
lent much to the sensation of the convention. 
Likewise was the contrast between the two ora- 
tors who were to present the claims of their 
respective candidates. Their persons and their 
speeches were so widely dissimilar that they 
were impressive from this standpoint alone. To 
have the two leading candidates before the 
convention advocated by a divided state dele- 
gation represented by two of her greatest pub- 
lic men had been witnessed in the past, but it 
was unprecedented when the state's own can- 
didate was the first American statesman of 
his time. 

In the roll-call of the states when Maine 
was reached Judge West from his seat in the 
Ohio delegation arose to nominate Blaine. It 




"The third delegate-at-large elected unaiiimously was 
Marcus A. Hanna— then plain Mark Hanna of Cleve- 
land. He was well-known to convention-goers in Ohio, 
but he had no reputation in politics beyond his local sur- 
roundings." 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 37 

was an unusual scene in a convention. When 
the tall form of the "blind man eloquent" came 
into view it hushed the audience into expect- 
ancy. That he spoke for the popular candidate 
was soon apparent. Although he was sur- 
rounded by darkness the sunlight of his mind 
caught the telepathic sympathy of his auditors. 
His appeal for Blaine was dramatic, and his 
oratory drew upon his store of classic and his- 
toric learning. It was just such a speech as 
his subject demanded. It was full of ornate 
and passionate rhetoric. "Nominate him, and 
the shouts of September victory in Maine will 
be re-echoed back by the thunders of the Oc- 
tober victory in Ohio. Nominate him, and the 
camp-fires and beacon-lights will illuminate 
the continent from the Golden Gate to Cleo- 
patra's Needle. Nominate him, and the mil- 
lions who are now waiting will rally to swell 
the column of victory that is sweeping on. In 
the name of a majority of the delegates from 
the Republican states and their glorious con- 
stituencies who must fight this battle, I nomi- 
nate James G. Blaine of Maine." 

Then the Blaine forces broke loose with a 
pandemonium of approval. An exhibition of 



38 Masters of Men 

the craziness with which a crowd may be seized 
was presented. It is distinctively a National 
Convention product. It has no parallel in 
American life unless it is the wild and enthusi- 
astic manifestations of the baseball "fan" in 
an exciting game. For a full half hour the 
Blaine delegates and the thousands of his 
spectator-supporters indorsed their candi- 
date with frenzy, noise, cheers, and every ex- 
pression that was at once vociferous and ec- 
static. Ten thousand people that were sane a 
few minutes before commenced to howl, sing, 
clap their hands, stamp their feet, wave their 
hats, and dance. A man in the gallery solemn- 
ly makes the noise of a cuckoo as in a Swiss 
clock. Another raises his umbrella and cheers 
for Blaine. A comely young woman clad in 
white cries out in shrill tones from the gallery, 
"God bless Jim Blaine!" She knows not why, 
but the fair one feels that she is sustaining our 
American institutions. Above all she knows 
that her hero is the strongest Republican can- 
didate. The climax of this saturnalia of en- 
thusiasm is reached when a white helmet with 
a snowy plume is carried to the platform. It 
is the emblem of the Blaine cult. "Like an 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 39 

armed warrior, like a plumed knight, James 
G. Blaine marched down the halls of Congress 
and threw his shining lance full and fair 
against the brazen forehead of every traitor to 
his country and every maligner of his fair rep- 
utation." So spoke Ingersoll in the Cincinnati 
convention in 1876; from that day Blaine was 
the "Plumed Knight" of American politics. 
So when the gaudy trapping of chivalry was 
raised aloft, again, like a great wave, the roar 
of enthusiasm rolled over the convention, and 
the scenes of the past minutes were repeated; 
then came the lull of exhaustion, and sanity 
reigned once more. So much at the opportune 
moment can a well-handled bauble do. 

In the psychology of American political life 
there is no more potent and interesting fact 
than a National convention. There, may be 
seen the workings of the popular mind in its 
primal state. This is the era of the crowd, and 
the convention is the concentrated crowd. 
Thinking and acting en masse always has been, 
and always will be impulsive and illogical, and 
when unrestrained and undirected, invariably 
develops mental anarchy. Practically there is 
a suspension of the reasoning and thinking 



40 Masters of Men 

faculties, and a substitution of a wild exhibi- 
tion which is a cross between the recklessness 
of childhood and the irresponsibility of blithe- 
some lunacy. From this it must not be in- 
ferred that such enthusiasm when unfolded is 
not honest and spontaneous. It is only in rare 
instances that it can be manufactured. Polit- 
ical leaders and the managers of great move- 
ments are wxll aware that these great exhibi- 
tions of human excitement are among the most 
valued agencies of success. They know the 
psychology of the popular mind. Above all it 
must be controlled, and for this reason it must 
have its stage-settings, its entrances and its 
lights. The Blaine demonstration of the Chi- 
cago convention was theatrical, but it was real. 
Tlie parade of the helmet of Navarre had its 
prototype in the procession that carried the 
rail, said to be split by Lincoln, in the Chicago 
convention of 1860. All such demonstrations 
which grow out of the imagination of the crowd 
must have a popular subject as a basis. This 
subject must possess prestige of a popular 
kind. In this Blaine had the advantage over 
Sherman. The latter's great achievements did 
not appeal to the admiration of the populace. 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 41 

His accomplishments in affairs of state were 
beyond the understanding of the crowd. On 
the contrary Blaine's career was such as to 
make him a popular idol. He was con- 
tinually in the limelight of the people. 
When he twisted the tail of the British lion 
every jingo in the land applauded. As he 
assailed the South and Jefferson Davis it 
aroused the spirit of a million partisans, and 
when he mercilessly attacked the Democratic 
party he won the applause of every Republi- 
can. These conditions explain the wild and 
lavish adulation of his followers; and it was 
utilized to the fullest extent by his managers. 

Foraker's presentation of Sherman's name 
to the convention was from start to finish an 
entirely dissimilar affair. Devoid of all sensa- 
tional settings it was not however without a 
distinct brilliancy. The spokesman for the 
great statesman was making his first appear- 
ance on the stage of national politics. Al- 
though only in his thirties, his aggressive can- 
didacy for the Ohio governorship the year be- 
fore had attracted attention throughout the 
country. His appearance was in striking con- 
trast with the venerable Judge West. The 



42 Masters of Men 

light of young manhood was on his face, daunt- 
less courage in his eyes, and his whole bearing 
was of one who had superb command of him- 
self. What the name of Sherman lacked in 
magnetism, Foraker soon supplied. As he 
reviewed the career of his candidate the con- 
vention in sheer admiration of the orator 
quickly surrendered. It was a triumph for 
Foraker. Discarding rhetoric, disdaining the 
frills of oratory, his style was more intellectual 
than magnetic, but the warmth, the directness, 
and his accomplished expression soon had the 
convention in the same stormy throes as in the 
demonstration through which it had just 
passed. In the first it was stirred by the name 
of Blaine, but now it rose and roared under 
the influence and force of a personal and mag- 
netic power. 

From whence comes this elemental force by 
which some men become gods upon the plat- 
form and swing at will the emotions of their 
listeners up and down and around? This 
power that starts the blood, or chills the spine, 
and compels admiration in enemies and rap- 
tin*e in friends? Whatever it is, there has 
always been in the history of the race men who 



"In Chicago in the Heat of June" 43 

were its masters, — or, perhaps, the instruments 
of their own subconscious and mystic mental- 
ity. Mark Antony addressing the mob over 
the dead body of Csesar illustrates it, as does 
Robespierre of the French Revolution. In our 
own annals Clay and Blaine are the arche- 
types. 

When Foraker descended from the plat- 
form that day at Chicago ten thousand hear- 
ers felt that he too was gifted with the Prome- 
thean fire that withers, or strengthens the wills 
of men. 





V 

THE VICTORY OF THE PLUMED 

KNIGHT" 

|X the fourth day of the convention, June 
6th, the balloting for a candidate for 
the Presidency commenced. Ohio, on 
the first roll call, voted 21 votes for Blaine and 
25 for Sherman; on the second ballot the re- 
sult was 23 for Blaine and 23 for Sherman, 
and on the third ballot Blaine showed a de- 
cided majority — the vote being 25 for Blaine 
and 21 for Sherman. It was apparent that 
the increasing vote for Blaine would nominate 
him on the next ballot, when Foraker moved 
that the convention take a recess until the next 
day at ten o'clock. This was seconded by Silas 
B. Dutcher, of New York, an Arthur delegate. 
The motion sent a cold chill through the Blaine 
delegates. They remembered how in 1876 at 
Cincinnati, their leader was beaten bv delay. 
They were well aware that their fortunes could 
be lost in a night. Confusion reigned and 
leadership was lacking; somebody called for a 

\\ 



The Victory of the "Plumed Knight" 45 

roll call, and the followers of Blaine seemed in 
chaos. Finally, at the supreme moment, when 
others knew not what to say or do, McKinley, 
pale and self-possessed, and with a voice that 
was in itself a command, after addressing the 
chair, said: "Gentlemen of the Convention, I 
hope no friend of James G. Blaine will object 
to having the roll call of the States made. Let 
us raise no technical objection; I care not 
when the question was raised, the gentlemen 
representing the different States here have a 
right to the voice of this convention on this 
subject, and as a friend of James G. Blaine, I 
insist that all his friends shall unite in having 
the roll of States called, and then vote that 
proposition down." With hushed breath the 
convention listened to his words; here was a 
Sheridan turning defeat into victory, calling 
on his fleeing army to turn back and give fight. 
When McKinley said "and then vote that 
proposition down," all the old Blaine enthusi- 
asm was again let loose, and the lines re- 
formed. After a time the roll was called on 
Judge Foraker's motion to recess, and 364 
delegates voted for it, and 450 against it. Ohio 
on the motion, voted ayes, 17 ; nays, 28. Blaine 



46 Masters of Men 

was growing in Ohio, as well as in the conven- 
tion, and McKinley's influence was apparent 
in the situation. 

The refusal to recess and the vote on the 
third ballot showing Blaine in the lead, and 
Arthur second, worked the Convention into a 
fever heat. It also became known that Logan 
had telegraphed to his supporters to go to 
Blaine. All these circumstances made it ap- 
parent that the stampede had set in. Amidst 
the hurrying to and fro of delegates, McKin- 
ley and Foraker conferred as to the disposition 
of Ohio's votes on the fourth ballot. It was 
not a difficult thing to determine in the light of 
the impending result, as w^ell as the existent 
friendly feeling for Blaine among Sherman's 
friends on the Ohio delegation. When Ohio 
was reached in the roll call for the fourth bal- 
lot. Judge Foraker arose, while an expectant 
hush spread over the Convention, and, address- 
ing the chairman, said: "For what I supposed 
to be the best interests of the party, I pre- 
sented to this convention the name of John 
Sherman. Also supposing it to be for the best 
interests of the part}^ we have until now faith- 
fully and cordially supported him. Xow also 




"William H. West, after a spirited canvass^ was 
elected as the fourth delegate-at-large. He was a dis- 
tinguished lawyer of Ohio, a warm friend and admirer 
of Blaine, and was recognized as the aggressive leader 
of that faction in Ohio." 



The Victory of the "Plumed Knight" 47 

in the interests of the party, we withdraw him, 
and cast for James G. Blaine forty-six votes." 
The announcement was received by demonstra- 
tions of the wildest applause. It made the ex- 
pected a reality, and the rhythmic cry of 
"Blaine! Blaine! Blaine of Maine!" shouted in 
unison by the thousands of spectators sounded 
like the cry of a new crusade. 

"The third time is the charm," and the man 
whose name had been before three National 
Conventions had at last attained his longed 
for ambition. The announcement of Blaine's 
nomination by a vote of 541 against 272 for all 
others, was the signal for another exhibition of 
that temporary insanity which is a part of our 
National political conventions. A hurricane 
of cheering, a wild display of enthusiasm, a 
dramatic lifting of banners, processionals of 
ecstatic delegates, all showed that the nomina- 
tion was a popular one. But there were some 
delegates in that Convention who were not 
taken off their feet, and perhaps they remem- 
bered what Garfield said in nominating Sher- 
man four years before in that self same hall: 
"Not in Chicago in the heat of June, but at the 
ballot boxes of the Republic, in the quiet of 



48 Masters of Men 

November, after the silence of deliberative 
judgment, will this question be settled." 

In this convention McKinley won his first 
leadership in national politics. His career in 
the House of Representatives had impressed 
on the country his works as a patriotic and able 
legislator. His position at Chicago and the 
quiet and dignified manner in which he con- 
fronted every duty showed that he possessed 
tact, firnmess and ability in dealing with men. 
Now that the storm had subsided and a sober 
level had been reached, those who had watched 
and studied the proceedings of the convention 
noted that McKinley was one of its dominant 
characters. He ruled it with sternness, he had 
framed the platform and planted in it the same 
doctrines of a protective tariff that he was con- 
tending for in Congress, and to crown it all he 
was one of the most powerful agencies in the 
nomination of Blaine. With this record sup- 
plemented by his Congressional life, he stood 
in the estimation of the people of the country 
in that class of public men that we call 
"famous." 

He returned to his home to confront a 
troublous political situation. The General 



The Victory of the "Plumed Knight" 49 

Assembly of Ohio that met in January, 1884, 
was Democratic. The old habit of securing by 
"gerrymandering" what they could not win by 
fair elections, prompted a reconstruction of 
the Congressional districts of the State. Mc- 
Kinley was always legitimate prey in those 
days for Democratic legislatures. It is a note- 
worthy fact that every such legislature during 
his public life from 1876 to 1890, undertook by 
this method to keep him out of Congress. This 
year he found himself in a new district with a 
Democratic majority of about fifteen hun- 
dred votes. His new constituency on June 
26th tendered him a unanimous nomination. 
He could have obtained such a nomination in 
any district of the State. Petty jealousies or 
personal rivalries no longer confronted him, 
for he was now regarded as a great national 
Republican representing ideas that could not 
be circumscribed by the narrow limits of a 
Congressional district. He never had had per- 
sonal enemies, so he received the loyalty and 
support of his people, both as a duty and an 
honor on their part. Thus, for the second time, 
before in 1878, he started out to wrest from his 



50 Masters of Men 

political opponents a seat in the Congress of 
the United States. 

He loved campaigning and entered into the 
canvass with zest, but was not w^ithout anxiety 
both as to the success of the National ticket, 
and to his own election. He had observed 
at Chicago the bitter antagonism on the part 
of the so-called Independent Republicans, and 
he feared their work in the East. He knew 
also that Conkling's old friends were not ex- 
hibiting much enthusiasm for the ticket. He 
knew that his own district was Democratic, of 
the old-fashioned type, inheriting the preju- 
dices and anti-Republican sentiment of war 
times. The uncertainty of the situation filled 
him with enthusiasm for the fray. From every 
stump in his district he pleaded for the mainte- 
nance of the tariff, and showed the effect that 
its reduction would have on the farmers and 
manufacturers, that he sought to represent. 
Nor did he confine his labors to his own dis- 
trict, but from all over the State came calls for 
his speeches. 




VI 

THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICAN 
MOVEMENT 



mm 



|HE predictions and threats of George 
William Curtis and his Eastern asso- 
ciates made in the Chicago convention, 
that Mr. Blaine would be opposed by the so- 
called Republican Independents, took tan- 
gible form in a conference held in New York 
on June 17th. The meeting was held at the 
residence of Joseph Henry Harper, 269 Madi- 
son Avenue, and consisted of eighty-seven 
persons, twenty-six being from Boston, and 
the others from New York and Brooklyn. 
They were what was called "Free Traders" 
to a man — that is, they were for a tariff for 
revenue only, as opposed to the policy of a 
protective tariff. They were consequently op- 
posed to the Republican party and its candi- 
date on this ground. They had neither the 
courage nor the candor to frankly take the 
stand of the Democratic party on this ques- 
tion, but took the position that Mr. Blaine 

51 



52 Masters of Men 

was not personally an honest man, and there- 
fore unfit for the Presidency. They were all 
men of well-meaning purposes, college pro- 
fessors, theorists, and a few importers, or men 
whose fortunes rested on importing. They 
were a class of Republicans that never stood 
high in the estimation of Garfield, McKinley 
or Blaine, on account of their pharisaical pre- 
tensions in politics. In a letter to Garfield 
dated December 10th, 1880, Mr. Blaine re- 
ferred to this element of his party as "reform- 
ants by profession, the 'unco good.' " "They 
are to be treated," he wrote, "with respect, but 
they are the worst political advisers — upstarts, 
conceited, foolish, vain, without knowledge of 
measures, ignorant of men, shouting a shibbo- 
leth which represents nothing of practical re- 
form that you are not a thousand times 
pledged to! They are noisy, but not numer- 
ous ; Pharisaical, but not practical ; ambitious, 
but not wise; pretentious, but not powerful! 
They can be easily dealt with, and can be 
hitched to your administration with ease." 
This was the class of political aesthetes that 
Blaine found to be the bitterest enemies in his 
canvass. George William Curtis opened his 




"Carl Schiirz was the leading spokesman of the In- 
dependents. He was a profound student of public af- 
fairs, with an absolute and satisfied confidence that he 
was right on all political issues." 



The Independent Republican Movement 53 

mud-batteries in Harper's Weekly soon after 
the conference, and he had to aid him the most 
powerful caricaturist in the country, Thomas 
Nast. And so it went all along the line of the 
Independent opposition; its press and orators 
spared neither the home, the private life nor the 
individual integrity of the Republican candi- 
date for the Presidency. They invoked the 
filth and slander of gutter politics in a manner 
that the vilest tool of Tammany would turn 
from in disgust. 

Carl Schurz was the leading spokesman of 
the Independents. He was a profound stu- 
dent of public affairs with an absolute and sat- 
isfied confidence that he was right on all politi- 
cal issues. His opinions were expressed with 
an air of authoritative omniscience. He was a 
ripe scholar and a master in the use of the 
English language, which he acquired through 
his habits of intense study and natural lin- 
guistic ability. He commanded attention 
whenever he wrote or spoke. He was a theo- 
rist and a dreamer. There has not been his like 
in American politics — either before or since his 
time. Exiled from his native land — Prussia — 
because he loved liberty, he fled to Switzerland, 



54 Masters of Men 

thence to Germany, from there to Scotland, 
thence to Paris, thence to London, and finally 
landed in this country in 1852. He lived in 
New York and Philadelphia until I800, when 
he settled in Wisconsin. Afterwards he moved 
to Michigan, then to Missouri and closed his 
years in New York. Always raising a com- 
motion wherever he was, he was truly in the 
language of Byron, "a wild bird and a wan- 
derer." He was as unsettled in the domain of 
thought as he was in his migration. In poli- 
tics he was a gypsy wandering hither and 
thither through party territory and camping 
in none but for a night. His natural and Teu- 
tonic love of freedom prompted him to oppose 
slavery and rebellion with all his heart and we 
find his first political affections with the new- 
born Republican party. He was in the 
National convention of 1860, from Wisconsin, 
and labored earnestly for William H. Sew- 
ard's nomination. He served his adopted 
country with fidelity during the war. Lincoln 
made him a Major General, but he displayed 
no military genius. He supported Grant in 
1868, opposed his administration, and in 1872, 
he was one of that brilliant list of Liberal Re- 



The Independent Republican Movement 55 

publicans who met at Cincinnati and nomi- 
nated Horace Greely. 

Of this "Anything-to-beat-Grant" conven- 
tion he was the permanent chairman. Five 
weeks afterward he called a conference to bolt 
the convention over which he presided. This 
conference was composed of Carl Schurz, 
Jacob D. Cox, William Cullen Bryant, Os- 
wald Ottendorfer, David A. Welles, and 
Jacob Brinkerhoff . It was composed of schol- 
ars in daily life, aestheticians in politics, and 
free traders in economics. Greeley's aggres- 
sive ideas on protection were more than they 
could stand. So this intellectual autocracy 
nominated a ticket after their own heart in the 
persons of William S. Groesbeck of Cincinnati 
and Frederick L. Olmstead of New York. 
The solemnity and assurance of the little band 
recalls Canning's story of the three tailors of 
Tooley Street, Southwark, who addressed a 
petition of grievances to the House of Com- 
mons beginning: — "We the people of Eng- 
land." 

In 1876 Carl Schurz again allied himself 
with the Republican party and gave influen- 
tial support to Rutherford B. Hayes. He 



56 Masters of Men 

served in Hayes' cabinet and at the close of 
his term retired to a Xew York newspaper of 
the independent type. Here he had free exer- 
cise for his individual conceits. So when this 
campaign of 1884 opened he was ready in the 
name of morality and decency to lead the 
Independents against Blaine. No wonder 
that Richard Smith, the veteran editor of the 
Cincinnati Gazette, called him "the 'Flying 
Dutchman' of American politics." 

Schurz pursued the Republican candidate 
with malignity and great effect throughout the 
campaign. His speeches were of a polished 
type and avoided all flavor of personal antago- 
nism. Nevertheless, like his fellow Independ- 
ents, ]Mr. Schurz had a grievance. In a politi- 
cal way, Blaine had a perfect contempt for him. 
The great Republican leader regarded him as 
a "professional foreigner" trading on the af- 
fection and loyalty of his fellow-countrymen 
of German birth and extraction. Schurz knew 
Blaine's opinion of him, and it added to his 
enthusiasm for pure politics and Democratic 
success. 

There was some ground for criticism of 
Blaine's transaction while in public life, but 



The Independent Republican Movement 57 

none for a charge of dishonesty or bribe-tak- 
ing; yet there was just enough on which 
malignant slanderers could make a pretense of 
the charge of a crime, for such it would be if 
true. It was alleged that he had received $64,- 
000 from the Union Pacific Railroad Com- 
pany for services performed while in Con- 
gress. This charge was made the subject of 
investigation by the House Judiciary Com- 
mittee, but it was not prosecuted to comple- 
tion, Mr. Blaine having in the meantime taken 
his seat in the Senate. But it was dramati- 
cally discussed in the House by Blaine him- 
self, and all the evidence read by him — as he 
expressed it — "in the presence of 44,000,000 of 
my countrymen." Senator Hoar of Massa- 
chusetts pronounced him triumphantly acquit- 
ted. As a matter of fact it was simply an ex- 
posure of Blaine's private business and had no 
relation to public affairs. His enemies said 
he had received bonds of the Little Rock and 
Fort Smith Railroad as a gratuity, and that 
the Union Pacific road had sold these bonds 
for his benefit. He produced letters from the 
officers of the company, and from the bank 
that was said to have cashed the draft, denying 



58 Masters of Men 

that such a transaction ever occurred. Mr. 
Blaine further answering, said he bought and 
paid for the bonds at the market price to his 
financial loss. He was also accused of being 
the recipient of bonds of the Kansas Pacific 
Railroad, but he showed beyond controversy 
that it was his brother, who was one of the 
early settlers of Kansas, and that their names 
had been confused by the public scavengers, 
and further, the incident occurred before 
Blaine had ever entered Congress. But all 
these answers of Blaine had little effect upon 
his assailants. Notwithstanding that the inci- 
dents referred to were neither politically nor 
morally wrong, and that the transactions were 
strictly within the sphere of his private, and 
not of his public life, the muck-rakers merrily 
kept up the constant and cruel slanders 
against his honor. 

Blaine at no time had the slightest idea that 
his ownership of the securities mentioned was 
improper or immoral. His struggle to secure 
the INIulligan letters, and his aversion to their 
publicity, which he finally furnished himself, 
was rather to avoid the mortification over the 
exposure of his own private business, than to 



The Independent Republican Movement 5^ 

hide a public offense. Nevertheless, there was 
enough in all the business to keep him explain- 
ing and on the defensive personally through- 
out the campaign. The malignity and vicious- 
ness with which he was pursued by the Inde- 
pendents, even to his death, shows that a mob 
may be educated and wear dress suits, and yet 
possess the senseless and cruel bloodthirstiness 
of the commune. 

McKinley had the greatest admiration and 
confidence in the Republican standard bearer, 
and early offered himself for every effort and 
sacrifice required by the campaign managers. 
He was in hearty accord with every principle 
that Blaine represented, and regarded the 
campaign waged against him by the Inde- 
pendents as simply the defection of the 
"Free Trade" element in the Republican 
party. And as to the charges against Blaine's 
integrity, McKinley, with Senator Hoar, 
simply viewed them as calumnies of political 
enemies that had not the manhood to oppose 
him for their real reasons. 

As the campaign progressed, the opposition 
gained strength and assumed organization. 
The state of Maine held the first election of 



60 Masters of Men 

the year, in September, and gave to its hon- 
ored son the substantial and unusual majority 
of twenty thousand plurality. After this elec- 
tion the campaign managers persuaded Mr. 
Blaine to make a campaign through part of 
the West, which he did, much against his own 
judgment. But the subsequent events showed 
that it was not a mistake. When he reached 
Ohio he was joined by McKinley, and both, 
from that moving forum of American politics 
— the back platform of a Pullman car — ad- 
dressed thousands on their tour in that State 
and Indiana. 





VII 

BLAINE IN OHIO 

IN OHIO the candidate was received 
with tumultuous enthusiasm. There 
was no room here for the Independent 
movement. Blaine's magnetic presence roused 
the Republicans to the heights of political en- 
deavor, and the State election which was held 
October 14th, three weeks before the Presi- 
dential election, showed the estimate Ohio had 
of his slanderers. He was especially anxious 
about this State. It was here that he passed 
months of the happiest time of his boyhood, 
when he visited his cousin, Mrs. Ewing, wife 
of the great Senator, Thomas Ewing. Two 
days before the election in the most critical 
part of the Ohio campaign, he visited Lancas- 
ter, and in response to a serenade referred to 
his boyhood days, saying: "My friends, I con- 
fess that in this place and at this time I hardly 
feel disposed to make any allusion to public 
affairs. The recollections that rush upon me 
as I stand here, carry me back through many 
years, to a time before most of you were born. 

61 



62 Masters of Men 

In 1840 I was a school boy in this town, at- 
tending the school of a Mr. William Lyon, a 
cultivated English gentleman (younger broth- 
er of the Lord Lyon, and uncle, I believe, of 
the British Minister at Washington), who 
taught with great success the youth of this 
vicinity. I know not whether he be living, but 
if he is, I beg to make my acknowledgments 
to him for his efficiency and excellence as an 
instructor." Then he pictured the old Lancas- 
ter of his boyhood, and referred to the great 
characters that came out of the quaint old 
town; to its distinguished lawyers — Thomas 
Ewing and Henry Stanberry; to its great 
Shermans — William T. and John. The whole 
speech was so full of human pathos that it had 
more effect in Ohio than any political speech 
that he had made. It touched the heart. It 
was a backward glimpse to boyhood days, and 
every man that read it felt his blood tingle and 
his eyes grow dim. 

The State of Ohio the year before had 
elected the Democratic ticket by over twelve 
thousand plurality. In October, 1884, after 
Blaine, Sherman, Foraker, INIcKinley and all 
the lesser lights of the party had carried on a 



Blaine in Ohio 63 

canvass of the greatest activity and interest, 
the Republican State ticket was elected by over 
eleven thousand plurality. The result was- most 
encouraging to Mr. Blaine, for in November he 
secured an increased vote and carried the state 
by thirty-one thousand over the vote for Mr. 
Cleveland. 

McKinley, in addition to his speaking in 
Ohio, Indiana, New York and West Virginia, 
was busy in his own district and to aid him had 
the assistance of Blaine himself. This part of 
Ohio was especially devoted to the candidate 
for President, having, as we have seen, persist- 
ently supported him both in the State and Na- 
tional conventions. On the 7th of October, 
Mr. Blaine delivered a powerful and effective 
speech for McKinley at Canton, which prob- 
ably had more to do in returning him to Con- 
gress than any event of the campaign. He 
paid McKinley the compliment of saying that 
"he was the ablest advocate of protection in 
his time," and charged "that this community 
would be derelict in its duty if it failed to elect 
him to Congress." 

The community was not derelict, and the 
district that was carved out with a ready-made 



64 Masters of Men 

Democratic majority of fifteen hundred, 
elected him by a majority of 2,029 over all 
opposition, composed of Democratic, Green- 
back, Labor and Prohibition candidates. 

The general election resulted in the disas- 
trous defeat of Mr. Blaine, owing to the loss 
of New York by a narrow margin. It carried 
with it the election of a Democratic House of 
Representatives. 

4^ ^ 4^ ^ 4^ ^ ^ 

vjv ^v T^ 7^ T^ 7fi T* 

The defeat of Blaine stunned the Repub- 
licans. Their candidate, like Henry Clay, was 
their personal idol, and his rejection cast his 
party into the deepest gloom. It was lamented 
by millions as a personal misfortune. It was 
no less appalling from a political standpoint. 
For the first time since "before the war" a 
Democrat was to occupy the Executive chair at 
Washington. To the generation that had 
grown up since Lincoln, this had always been 
regarded as one of the impossibilities. It was 
firmly believed that there could be no future 
for the party that was identified with slavery 
and secession; and "after us the Deluge." 

Nevertheless, the Democratic party, 
spurned and rejected for a quarter of a cen- 
tury, stepped into the Seats of the Mighty, but 
the leaders of the opposition, while the heroes 
jf defeat, still remained JNIasters of ]Men. 



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